1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique useful for processing character information extracted from an image and displaying the extracted character information with enhanced visibility.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, digital cameras have been used not only for capturing images but also for recording character information in images. Further, in order to utilize the captured images, many users extract character information from the images and convert the character information into a style that can be easily accessed according to, for example, translation.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-138802 discusses a technique that acquires image data of characters written on, for example, tourist information boards, walls of buildings, signboards, brochures, and restaurant menus, using a camera, subject the acquired image data to character recognition, and translate the characters. If the character information after the translation is reflected to (embedded in) the original document, the number of characters of the message after the translation may increase/decrease from the original message. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-013969, discusses a technique useful for changing the character size of a translated text so that it can be appropriately embedded in the original position of the text.
However, according to the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-138802, the character information after translation, which is presented to the user, is displayed in a translation display area different from the region where the characters of the translation target have been displayed in the original image. In other words, the character information is not displayed at the original position in the original image. Since the position of the character information is changed, it is not easy to understand the original position of the character information in the original image. However, if the character information after translation is simply placed at the position where the characters of the translation target existed in the original image, the character information after translation may not fit in the original region and run off the area (see FIG. 3E).
According to the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-013969, in displaying character information after translation, the character size of the translated document is adjusted to fit the document area where the translation target characters existed. However, if the area of the region where the character information after translation is to be placed is small, the character size after translation may be too small to read (FIG. 3D). Further, the visibility is poor when the character information is converted into an easy-to-understand style.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-319240 discusses a technique for dealing with a document image. In the case of a natural image, which has no unused regions, a region excellent in visibility cannot be determined by placing a pattern obtained from character code generated by character recognition, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-319240.